EXCL FIRST LOOK: Murphy's Depth Shows In "The Wake" Covers

In Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy's new Vertigo series "The Wake," an unspeakable horror bubbles up from the depths of the ocean. And for the covers to the ten-part series, Murphy is exploring fathoms upon fathoms with the covers for #1 through 5 connecting up for one massive scene of underwater exploration.

DC/Vertigo shared an exclusive first look at the full piece for the first half of the series, alongside Murphy's uncolored original art:

EXCLUSIVE: Sean Murphy's colored and uncolored covers for his and writer Scott Snyder's "The Wake"

The artist referred to the series as "Just as scary as American Vampire, but with a lot less oxygen," nnd earlier this year while discussing the book with CBR, Snyder said, "Sean was amazing about bringing so many ideas to the table. I sort of gave a rough template to him; without giving too much away about [the creature], its design etymology would touch on certain folklores of the sea but also actual sea creatures and human evolutionary traits. It became about bringing the creepiest and most evocative element to the creatures that we could while keeping it really scary."

Murphy added, "It's really good that this is an ocean-centric book, because Scott talks about primal fear -- we almost have to be underwater, because that's where our basest fear comes from. I mean, think about it. Would you rather fight a bear on land or a shark in the water? People would rather have the bear, because you're standing.But water, it's like, 'Get me out of there!' It's one of the scariest things people can imagine."